Sassy pant kids

I was outside weeding the garden sometime last week while we were waiting for the bus to arrive and Benjamin noticed that "the girls across the street" (we've lived here for almost five years and that's still what we call them) were playing in their backyard. He asked if he could see if they were allowed to play, so I told him that he could, and off he ran.

Zoë desperately wanted to follow him, but I kept telling her to wait for her sisters. I do let her go over to play, but only when one of them takes her so they can keep her out of trouble and escort her back home when she decides she's finished playing.

She listened for a minute but then started wandering down the driveway toward the street.

"Not you," I said. "You have to wait for your sisters."

She stuck by me for a few more minutes before inching her way to the street again.

"Uh-uh. You wait until Mimi and Rachel come home."

Soon, despite all my firm, steadfast commandments she was soon standing at the very edge of the driveway.

"Zoë..." I warned.

She turned her head to look first one way, then the other before defiantly declaring, "No car!" and making a mad dash across the street.


I chased her down, but...oh, boy! When an idea gets planted in her mind this little girl is going to carry it through. She's certainly got quite a bit of stick-to-itiveness, which I'm sure will serve her well in life, though I often find myself wishing she wasn't quite as willful of a toddler as she is.

Tonight I was walking her to her bed, which always makes her feel a little angry anyway, when she noticed that Rachel had left clothes scattered all over her little blue mat (to break her fall should she happen to roll out of bed (hardwood floors are great...until they're not)).

"Aich-o!" she harrumphed (which is how she says Rachel) and bent down to scoop up all the clothes that were on her mat. Then she chucked those clothes onto Rachel's "side" of the room. So apparently she's the tidy one of that relationship, which really isn't saying much...

I had a third story about Zoë but I can't remember it so I'll tell one about Benjamin instead.

He had his kindergarten assessment today, which he was rather anxious for all day. I signed up for the latest block of time I could (so that we could just take the girls home after school) but when he woke up in the morning the first thing he wanted to do was head to school for his assessment. He was in agony all day and was so happy when we finally went.

I really hope it went smoothly because he can be a little smart-alecky.

All they said to me was that he's "ready for school" and then they wondered what preschool he's been attending (the answer to that question is "none").

All he told me was that they had him count, and that he thinks he counted to six before they told him he did fine and "wrote down on their papers." Later he told me he counted to ten, though, so I don't know what he ended up doing.

He said they asked him questions about words, but he couldn't "remember" what.

Apparently they also asked him to play. He had to build with LEGO and put together some sort of bracelet?

Anyway, we were talking about it on Monday (we do a weekly overview of our family calendar on Mondays at FHE) and he was quite worried about it. He's never taken a test before! I assured him it would just be things like colours and letters and shapes, "Oh, and they'll ask you to count as high as you can!" I said (because that's something that Miriam had told me she'd been asked when she had her kindergarten evaluation a couple of years ago).

"Uhhh..." he said with far too much confidence. "I can count to 100. It's so easy. I just use the skip-a-few trick. 99, 100. Boom."

His kindergarten teacher sure is going to have fun with him!